Spirited booze lovers throng stores as liquor sales resume in Karnataka
Bengaluru: Booze lovers ushered in the resumption of liquor sales in a spirited fashion in Karnataka on Monday thronging stores hours before shutters went up at several places and made no secret of their celebratory mood.
At some places, they flocked liquor shops even before day-break and performed "special prayers" with flowers, coconuts,incense sticks, camphor and crackers in front of the stores.
Liquor outlets had been shut in the State from March 25 following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Excise revenue loss during the period was about Rs 2,500 crore, according to government sources.
About 4,500 standalone liquor outlets (CL-2 and CL- 11 licence holders), which comprise wine stores and those owned by state-run Mysore Sales International Limited, outside containment zones were allowed to be opened from Monday from 9 am to 7 pm with some restrictions.
These include customers compulsorily wearing of face masks and maintaining social distancing with not more than five people inside liquor shops.
Many customers were indeed well-prepared. At many places, they came with umbrella, raincoat, newspapers and books and queued up as early as 3 am.
At a liquor shop in Sale game Road in Hassan, the tippler slit the traditional lamp and incense sticks, performed 'aarati' with camphor and decorated the store with the garland of flowers.
With folded hands, they all performed 'special prayers'.
In Mandya, the tipplers queued up before Martaanda liquor shop before dawn. An hour before the sales were to resume, a few people burst crackers in celebration.
Some tipplers in Belagavi were more "enterprising."
They went to a liquor store on Sunday night itself, performed special prayers and placed their "representatives" in the form of slippers, bags and stones in the "social distancing boxes" they themselves had drawn sothat they don't have to stand in queue in the morning.
An elderly woman Dakamma was the centre of attraction in Shivamogga.
The bent body did not bend the determination of this spirited lady, claimed to be 96-year-old, who was heard saying "liquor is goodfor health."
At the taluk headquarters town of Brahmavara in the coastal Udupidistrict, the queue of the booze lovers was reported to be almosthalf-a-kilometre.
Long queues were seen at liquor stores at Mariyappana Palyaand K R Puram, among others, in Bengaluru. The store managers too were no less cautious while dealingwith customers in the COVID era.
They let the customers enter afterspraying sanitisers in their hands, and allowed only those who hadworn masks and maintained social distancing.
To maintain law and order, authorities had deployed policemen in good numbers at these stores and they were seen on duty ensuring that customers maintained social distancing.
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Four of family found dead in Maharashtra’s Nanded district in suspected mass suicide
Nanded (PTI): A farmer, his wife and their two sons were found dead in two different locations in Maharashtra’s Nanded district on Thursday morning, in what police suspect to be a mass suicide, an official said.
Around 8 am, the bodies of Ramesh Sonaji Lakhe (51) and his wife Radhabai Lakhe (45) were discovered on a cot in their home at Jawala Murar village in Mudkhed tehsil, he said.
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The bodies of their sons, Umesh (25) and Bajrang (23), were subsequently found on nearby railway lines. It appears they jumped in front of a speeding train, the official said.
Police inspector Dattatray Manthale told reporters, “The parents were found dead inside their home, while the sons took their lives on the railway tracks. We have asked a Forensic Science Laboratory team to collect evidence. The truth will come out only after a thorough technical investigation and autopsy.”
While the nature of their death appears to be part of a suicide pact, police said the exact circumstances remain unclear.
The family belonged to the small-scale farming community, but it is not yet confirmed if financial distress or a domestic crisis triggered the extreme step, the official said.
Neighbours described the Lakhes as a hardworking family who struggled against the odds of small-land farming to sustain themselves.
The Nanded rural police are recording statements of relatives and checking for notes or final messages left by the family.
